April’s almost over, which (I believe) means we’ve see the last of the DC Comic’s New 52 WTF gatefold covers. And they were pretty lame. This kind of gimmicky crap reminds me of the silver foil covers that Marvel and Image used to put out in the 90’s, about the time I stopped buying monthly comics. (I started again eventually, but only after the lame-ass Spider Island storyline ended.)

There must be people at DC who know better than to try to push comic book sales with this crap. Story is king. Great art is great to look at, but if you want me to buy your title next month, give the pictures a story to hang on.

And the cover folds open to reveal…

… Beowulf?

I guess that one is a WTF? moment, but that doesn’t make it a comic worth reading.

Dr Bostrom believes we’ve entered a new kind of technological era with the capacity to threaten our future as never before. These are “threats we have no track record of surviving”… Likening it to a dangerous weapon in the hands of a child, he says the advance of technology has overtaken our capacity to control the possible consequences. —BBC News

The way to integrate the Extremis concept for Iron Man with modern neuroscience is to create an interface through the skin using the basic concepts of regenerative medicine… Tissue would be extracted from the person for whom the interface is being created, the appropriate cells (neurons in this case) would be isolated and cultivated. In vitro the process would continue with proliferation of the neurons but in a targeted way using a tissue scaffold to direct and shape the growth. After shaping by mechanical and electrical stimulation, these artificially integrated tissues would then be implanted back into the user. —E. Paul Zehr

[UPDATE: Something happened to the images I originally linked to, so here are some other images, similar to what I originally posted.]

I found this great website Canuxploitation, which calls itself the complete guide to Canadian B-movies. I always knew about the Ginger Snaps films and the work of Cronenberg, but I hadn’t realized classics like The Changeling or The Gate were Canadian. The website has a pretty sweet collection of reviews and links to movie posters [similar to] these:

Pretty awesome, eh?

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Be sure to check out my horror comic MetaMorphosis! War is Hell. Home is worse.

Oblivion stars Tom Cruise, who does well in the action genre and whose few sci fi films (War of the Worlds, Minority Report) have been excellent. Though Oblivion isn’t any less in quality, director Joseph Kosinski, best known for his Gears of Wartrailers, highlights something lacking in the film that’s also lacking in nearly every sci-fi video game that’s ever been made: originality. « Read the rest of this entry »

Sean Murphy’s Punk Rock Jesus came out as a mini series from Vertigo last year, and having read it in trade paperback, I feel like I’m late to the party. It’s not the game changer that the jacket blurbs call it, but PRJ is finally a comic that tries to say something new. « Read the rest of this entry »

Kafka’s genius is easily snatched for misappropriation because it asserts itself in shadows. A vision of existence as seemingly cryptic and complex as Kafka’s inevitably becomes a strip of flypaper to catch any interpretation that buzzes by it.

The Founding Fathers worried that “some common impulse of passion” might lead many to subvert the rights of the few. It’s a rational fear, one that is played out endlessly. Obama, who understands how to utilize public passion better than most, flew some of the Newtown families to Washington for a rally, imploring Americans to put “politics” aside and stop engaging in “political stunts.”

After talking to women living in hostels about their experiences of harassment – called Eve-teasing in India – [students at SRM University in Chennai] developed a bra designed to deliver a 3800kv electric shock to any would-be rapist, enough to cause severe burns.

Replace your limbs with Legos.

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Be sure to check out my webcomic MetaMorphosis! War is Hell. Home is worse.

Feel like taking a trip to Mars? BBC reports on Dutch non-profit Mars One that’s looking to colonize Mars using existing technology – and they want to use reality tv to help them . « Read the rest of this entry »